Antiquing Fabric with Coffee

Antiquing Fabric with Brewed Coffee
Creating that grunge looking fabric for needlework or making folk dolls or their clothing.

What you need:
Muslin or white fabric
Instant Coffee (not brewed)
Vanilla

Make a cup of very strong coffee using instant coffee not brewed. The stronger the coffee, the darker your antiquing will come out. (You can use instant tea if you desire also.)

Add a few drops of vanilla to it for a nice scent.

Ways to dye your fabric:

1. Make sure you have enough coffee to cover all your fabric. It is best to stain just the fabric you will be using vs yards at a time. So if your project says 1/4 yard, antique 1/4 yard. Soak your fabric in the coffee, wring out excess (will leave neat marks from twisting) if desired and let it air dry.

2. Create your work, then antique the entire project. You can do this by spritzing the coffee onto the fabric. Let it air dry.

Air drying in the sun on something metal to absorb the heat is the best drying method so plan on doing this on a nice day for great deeply grunged results.

Other drying methods: Let the item dry only for a few minutes in a low temp oven. Make sure you watch it carefully and only for a few minutes. This will result in deep antiquing.

Poor Results will happen if --

You use brewed coffee vs instant.

You put it in the dryer or you iron it dry. Your iron could get stained and then all your clothing you iron afterwards will have staining on them.